Recently I’ve been getting into romance novels. (Heads up, there’s a post in the works about that.) But I decided I wouldn’t review them because of how unavoidable spoiling them would be. But I realized I could get around it by talking about the general vibe of the story and avoiding details.
Set On You by Amy Lea follows plus-sized fitness influencer, Crystal Chen. After being on the wronged of a rebound relationship and a series of tinder flings, Crystal swears off random hookups just in time for a handsome stranger to start showing up. After a meet-cute where he steals her squat rack, they form a bit of a rivalry. She doesn’t learn he is firefighter Scott Ritchie until they meet at their grandparents’ engagement party.
And by grandparents, I mean her grandmother and his grandfather are getting married. Something that threw me was that none of the characters mentioned how the quasi-incestuous relationship might be something the couple will have to explain or what the potential fallout that a breakup might do to family gatherings.
The romance is a pretty standard example of the Belligerent Sexual Tension trope. The couple flirts by fighting. It’s not my favorite trope, but I’m not mad at it.
The NSFW scenes do take an unexpected exhibitionist angle with elements of edging. That personally weirded me out because these kinks are never really discussed beforehand. Since I’m relatively new to steamy romances (that aren’t fanfiction), I’m still getting used to official works featuring scenes that aren’t very vanilla. Still, it’s probably fine for a veteran romance reader.
This is Amy Lea’s debut novel, and in some ways, it shows. The final act of the book dragged for me. It felt like the execution was off.
Without giving too much away, there is a fatphobic incident that drives a wedge between our couple. The way the characters reacted to it seems a bit strange to me. Crystal seems surprised that people would respond that way. Maybe it’s because I’ve been pretty aware of internet culture for most of my life, but I fully expected her to get that reaction the second they went public with their relationship. So it’s weird to me that a character whose entire platform is about body positivity and who had faced plenty of haters along the way isn’t very familiar with the internet’s bag regardings fatphobia.
I appreciate the way the conflict unfolded for the couple. There were poorly handled choices with good intentions on both sides that made it seem fair. A lot of other novels will make conflicts too one-sided, so I appreciate that both characters made equally bad choices in a less-than-ideal situation.
That being said, something about how the romance played out gives me the impression that they won’t last for very long unless Scott continues to exercise a lot of patience in the future. Crystal has trust issues that almost break up the relationship three times over the novel’s twoish months.
I’m going to rate this book 3 sets out of 5. I didn’t hate it, but it was far from my favorite novel. I’m being a bit lenient because this is a debut novel, and I trust that some of my issues will be resolved as Lea gets more experience. I’m already gearing up to try her novel Exes & O’s after this.
I Think Thinks 